Morariu An Inspiration

CHARLES BRICKER ON TENNIS

New coach. New doubles partner. And, in a profound sense, a new Corina Morariu.

She certainly looks the same. The 15 pounds she lost during her successful fight against a rare form of leukemia is back on her 5-foot-8 frame, and she still cracks that forehand with authority.

But tennis is no longer strictly about wins and losses. "That's not what I'm here for," she said last week from the Rogers AT&T Cup in Montreal, where she and longtime buddy Kimberly Po-Messerli of Hermosa Beach, Calif., were dusting off a few more doubles wins.

"I'm just happy to be playing. I got so many phone calls and e-mails when I was ill from people I didn't know -- mothers telling me how their children fought back against leukemia and now they were back doing what they did before. That's one of the big reasons why I'm playing again. It was inspiration."

Morariu of Boca Raton found a comfort zone for her tennis rebirth this summer, playing Team Tennis where the time on court was relatively short, and the crowd noise and music over the loudspeakers put the emphasis on fun.

Then she played her first singles match on the Sanex WTA Tour, lost, and began winning doubles matches with Po-Messerli. They reached the quarters of their first tournament together, then the semis a week later and reached the quarters at Montreal.

Meanwhile, the USTA extended her a wild card into the U.S. Open, which will be her first Grand Slam since the 2001 Australian Open. She doesn't pretend to be anywhere near her top form.

"It's getting there. I'm pretty happy with the way I'm hitting the ball," she said. "I'm just lacking match play."

There were nerves when she got back on tour last month. "Yeah, sure. But anytime someone came up to me and said they were happy to see me again, or that I'm an inspiration to them, that made all the work I've put in the last months so much more important."

Can she ever return to the level that got her to No. 29 in singles in 1998 and No. 1 in doubles in 2000?

"I think I can," she said, a bit tentatively. "But I don't know. I've never been in this situation before, and I don't know what the next few months will bring.

"I have to be patient. I have to be ready for ups and downs."

The leukemia is in remission. She has had several clean tests and continues to be tested once a month. After eight years of being coached by Andrew Turcinovich, whom she married in November of 1999, she is now coached by Philip Farmer.

It's unrealistic to expect anything major from Morariu this year, and no one is putting any pressure on her. The only thing she needs to do right now is continue feeling the court and the game.

And to remember what she was doing a year ago at this time. That's the easiest, and the most satisfying, part of the equation.

Lashing out at Lleyton

Lleyton Hewitt is not the Tiger Woods of tennis. He is not very public. He made a very questionable remark at last year's U.S. Open, which embarrassed a black linesman. And he doesn't give a lot of individual interviews, particularly with Australian reporters who have criticized him.

But he doesn't deserve the semi-organized campaign of vitriol being directed at him by a handful of writers.

At Wimbledon, one Aussie reporter sat in front of a closed circuit television, watching him play on Centre Court and applauding every time Hewitt lost a point.

Then, last week, in one of the silliest remarks in the stream of anti-Hewitt publicity, John Feinstein, writing an online column for AOL, said flatly, "Hewitt is not a superstar."

In fact, Hewitt is the best player in the world and has proven it all year. He and Andre Agassi are the only baseliners to have won Wimbledon in years.

The idea that Hewitt is not "a superstar" is preposterous. And he's going to be at the top or top five for the next several years.

Second serves

It was a warm-and-fuzzy story while it lasted, but it now appears that Amir Hadad and Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi will not be playing doubles at the U.S. Open, even if offered a wild card. Hadad is Israeli and Qureshi is Pakistani, and they struck a blow for international brotherhood by getting through qualifying and into the main draw at Wimbledon, even while Qureshi, who is Muslim, was being pilloried at home for playing with a Jew. They're still good friends, but Qureshi, ranked 107 in doubles, is looking for a stronger partner than Hadad, No. 119. ...

Krysty Marcio, 14, of Coral Springs will command some attention after winning the USTA Girls 14 Super Nationals in Atlanta after winning the Clay Court Super Nationals in Plantation in July. She beat Sarah Fansler of Laguna Niguel, Calif., 6-3, 6-3 for the Atlanta title -- her first major junior win. She moved to Palm Coast from New York and then to Coral Springs. She is being coached by Jaime Cortes. ...